


A Survey of Portraits of Princess Cirilla of Cintra (Excerpt)

by ladivvinatravestia



Series: Trick or Treat 2020 [6]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game)
Genre: Art, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Pretentious art history enthusiast, fake academic article, witcher 3 wild hunt tragic ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:54:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26889949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladivvinatravestia/pseuds/ladivvinatravestia
Summary: Only two portraits of Princess Cirilla are known to ever have been made.  One was painted when she was four years old.  The other is posthumous.
Relationships: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Emhyr var Emreis
Series: Trick or Treat 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950247
Comments: 10
Kudos: 41





	A Survey of Portraits of Princess Cirilla of Cintra (Excerpt)

**Author's Note:**

> I was all set to write some original flavour Hydra Trash Party yesterday, and then my art history lecture for the day focused on the tombs of a whole bunch of quattrocento women who died tragically young. This is the result. For whumptober prompts “grief” and “mourning a loved one.” Note that the narrator is writing several centuries after the events depicted in Witcher 3 and is either unaware of Ciri’s role in defeating the White Frost, or is somehow convinced that it’s a superstitious exaggeration of the actual events of the day.

Only two portraits of Princess Cirilla are known to ever have been made. One was painted when she was four years old. The other is posthumous. In 1254, an official portrait of Princess Cirilla was commissioned by the Palace at Cintra. Unfortunately, very few of the palace records from that time survive, so we cannot be certain who was behind the commissioning of the portrait, how the artist was selected, or how much the artist was paid and in what fashion. In the portrait, little Cirilla is a mere four years of age, dressed in a multi-tiered pink taffeta gown that reflects a style known to have been in fashion among Princess Pavetta and her set. The unknown artist has chosen to depict Cirilla not as the image of an idealized child, as in other mid-thirteenth century paintings of royal and upper class children, but as a fully-realized individual. This painting, in tempera on poplar, survives in relatively good condition despite the vicissitudes of time and now hangs on display in the National Portrait Gallery in Wyzima.

No other portraits are known to have been done of Cirilla during her short life. It was customary during this period for portraits of young royals and nobles of marriageable age to be made and sent to potential marriage alliance partners for consideration. It is known from multiple sources that, at various points, Queen Calanthe attempted to negotiate a marriage for Cirilla with both Radovid of Redania and Kistrin of Verden. No portraits of Cirilla are still extant in association with either of these locales, nor is there any known correspondence that refers to them. Thus, it cannot be known whether portraits once existed but were lost during the political upheavals of the mid-thirteenth century; or whether no such portraits were ever made.

Returning to known portraits, it is not known how the 1254 portrait came to be in the possession of Emperor Emhyr var Emreis, when so much else of the palace at Cintra was looted and burned, but by 1271 at the latest, it was hanging in his personal study in the imperial palace at Wyzima. This is also the date at which Cirilla, so long absent from reliable historical records, begins to again appear. One can piece together her movements during that year by examining accounts from Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige, but that narrative has been examined at greater length elsewhere. It suffices for our purposes to note that her activities culminated in the Battle of Undvik, during which she gave her life defending our world against an invasion by the Aen Elle.

This was an act of bravery and self-sacrifice which was to bring her, in the coming months and years, a level of veneration bordering on the religious; and even today she is remembered as one of the Continent's greatest heroes. One presumes that she would have gained fame and veneration nonetheless, but her image was certainly given more widespread recognition by the funeral monument commissioned for her by Emperor Emhyr var Emreis, now acknowledged to have been her father. The monument was designed by Cathal Cranndarach and carved out of Ardaiso marble. It was unveiled at a solemn memorial service on March 10, 1272, in Nilfgaard, and remains on display in that city to this day (see fig. 1).

As the reader will be aware, the princess, her noble death, and her monument are described in many songs and poems both by contemporary poets and by those working decades and even centuries after the fact. The poet Dandelion, who in fact was a sometime travelling companion of the Princess's mentor Geralt of Rivia, wrote several odes both to Princess and monument, but in his private correspondence to his longtime paramour Priscilla, he is somewhat more lukewarm in his praise of the monument.

"The face is more or less correct - though to be honest the whole is so idealized I am surprised they kept her scar. You would not believe - they've put her in some sort of Nilfgaardian court dress! Why they would not have shown her in armour I cannot imagine - all of their other military heroes’ tombs are shown in armour.. Worst, though - they put a lion at her feet! Well, I guess that is not so uncalled-for, but they ought at least to have put a wolf there with it. It is like - forgive me for saying so - His Imperial Stuffiness wishes to downplay all possible connexion with Geralt, when Geralt was so much more of a father to her than His Majesty ever was!”

We are also once again indebted to Nuala Kiyohara, that inimitable court diarist, for a rare glimpse into the private life of Emperor Emhyr var Emreis - and in a way that will tie our two known portraits of Princess Cirilla together. "After the memorial service," she writes, "the Emperor returned to his study, where he sequestered himself for the remainder of the day without saying a word. I, naturally, being solicitous of his health, crept along the corridor to see if I might be of some service. What I saw when I approached the keyhole, my dearest correspondents, was enough to bring even the hardest heart some feeling, for there sat the Emperor on the floor, with no care for the dignity of his person, tears rolling down his cheeks and tenderly touching the face of the portrait of his little daughter, as though she were there in the room with him."

Turning now to the iconographic scheme of the monument.... [excerpt ends]

**Figure 1: Funeral Monument of Princess Cirilla of Cintra, Cathal Cranndarach, marble, 1272**

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [tumblr](https://ladivvinatravestia.tumblr.com/)!


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